Murder victim's family pleads for information at parade

June 28, 2004|By Kathryn Masterson, RedEye.

Family and friends of murder victim Kevin Clewer walked in Sunday's Pride Parade, passing out thousands of informational postcards in hopes that someone might help them find the suspect believed to have killed the 31-year-old man.

Clewer, who was gay, was stabbed to death multiple times in his Boystown apartment in March. Police have released a sketch of the person witnesses described seeing with Clewer in the bar area of North Halsted Street shortly before he was killed but have not located him for questioning.

"We don't mean to bring any sorrow to the parade--we realize it's a cause of celebration for many people--but we're here because Kevin can't be," Clewer's brother Ron Clewer said.

The family has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Clewer's killer. Before the parade, they gathered on the steps of Clewer's former apartment on North Elaine Place to talk about their quest to keep the case alive.

"I have one thing to say--we are not stopping until this person is taken off the streets," Clewer's father, Jim Clewer, said.

The relatives and friends marched wearing shirts with a picture of Kevin and their relation to him--father, mother, brother, friend, partner--printed on the front.

"He was so many different things to so many different people, said Lasse Leskinen, Clewer's former roommate. Leskinen, who moved to New York about a month ago, was at one time considered a suspect in the murder.